Life Issues Forum: Praying for Life & Liberty

Praying for Life & Liberty

By Deirdre A. McQuade

October 1, 2012

Prayer has been central to the Church's observance of Respect Life Month
each October since 1972. We pray for the protection of human lives wherever
they are threatened, for our nation and leaders, and for God's mercy toward
those who have taken innocent lives, promoted such killing, or neglected to
care for the most vulnerable.

This Respect Life Month, we face an unprecedented new threat. Ever since
the Bill of Rights was ratified, Americans have enjoyed the assurance that the
Constitution secured our God-given rights to religious liberty and freedom of
conscience. But in 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
announced that virtually all employers will be required to include
sterilization, abortifacient drugs and contraceptives in the health care plans
offered to employees. Only the narrowest and most inadequate provision was made
to accommodate employers or employees who object in conscience to that
coverage.

In light of this
and other threats, the bishops urged an intensification of prayer and fasting
for religious freedom in our country. New prayer
resources (tinyurl.com/7uhcf7z) are now
available in English and Spanish to help us learn more about our forebears in
the faith, call upon their heavenly intercession, and follow their example of
courage in the face of adversity.

The "Rosary
Novena for Life and Liberty" is meant for use in parishes and homes from
Sunday, October 14 through Monday the 22nd. Available as a 2-sided
booklet (English/en español) and also in a
simpler one-sided format (English/en español), the novena
highlights the courageous saints who witnessed to our faith, to the sanctity of
every human life, and to religious liberty and conscience in our country. Among
them are the North American Martyrs—St. Isaac Jogues and companions—who were
slain for their faith in Christ; Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk maiden who was also
persecuted; Mother Marianne Cope, OSF who spent 35 years in Hawaii caring for
the needs of women and girls with leprosy; and Pedro Calungsod, a missionary
catechist who was martyred in Guam, now a U.S. territory, while still in his
teens.

In addition to praying the novena privately or with others, consider
making a pilgrimage this October – or at some point during the Year of Faith –
to one of the shrines and devotional sites throughout the United States dedicated
to our Blessed Mother and many remarkable saints. A list will be posted with
our other prayer
resources.

Those in the greater Washington, DC Metro area are invited to attend the Mass
and Pilgrimage for Life and Liberty on Sunday, October 14, at 12:00 noon
(Eastern) at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in
Washington. A plenary indulgence may be gained through participation, provided
the usual conditions are met. It includes Sunday Mass, opportunities for
Confession and Eucharistic adoration, and the first day of the rosary novena.
It will be televised live on EWTN. For more details, visit our Facebook event page
or the bishops' page on religious liberty: www.usccb.org/freedom.

Finally, the
Prayer for Religious Liberty, distributed during the Fortnight for Freedom this
summer, has been incorporated into a special "Holy
Hour for Life and Liberty" for use in parish churches, Catholic schools and
hospital chapels. It entrusts the protection of life and the defense of
religious liberty to the Lord present in the Eucharist.

However you join
the bishops in prayer for life and liberty this month, may we have "a clear and
united voice" so that this great land will always be "one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

__________________________________________________________

Deirdre A. McQuade is Assistant Director for Policy &
Communications at the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops. For more information on the bishops' activities defending life
and conscience rights, visit www.usccb.org/conscience.

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